Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! It’s that wonderful time again to sit down, sip that coffee, bitch about traffic to your coworker and enjoy another incredible day and the links!
Memos from 2018-19 shake up Trump case: Cohen denied having incriminating evidence on hush money
Sen. Paul: Jail DA Bragg for ‘Abuse of Power’
Precious metals outperforming market last 6 months
After Giving Them Billions, The US Government Wants To Bail Out Moderna
‘People Will Die’: There’s Another Supply Chain Crisis
US Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Credit Suisse Bailout, Expert Warns
John Solomon sues DOJ, National Archives over access to declassified Trump-Russia probe memos
Medicare Using AI Algorithms to Deny Coverage to People
Red states put tax money to better use than blue states
That’s all I got for today, I’ll leave you with a song, grab some popcorn and see how today unfolds.
Libertarian party just doesn’t get how to raise awareness of libertarian ideals.
What I’ve managed to glean about that is that there is no agreement on what those ideals are, just endless argument.
You would not believe how difficult it is to determine catering for the convention.
I’m sure we can all agree on marijuana brownies at least.
No.
Marijuana cookies.
Relevant
https://imgur.com/deUrK7S
Spot on
Tiger King: No
Naked fat dancing guy at convention: Yes
Not a formula for success.
It could work, you just need to have faith.
“Have you accepted government as your lord and savior?”
–Leopold “Butters” Scotch
I like the Make America Exotic slogan.
First of all, if he were serious, he’d be leaning into his Moldanado name and going for the Historic First Gay Latinx LGOTQ POC Presedente EVER Si se Puede!
Second, his obsession with Carol makes me not vote for him, because while I wouldn’t mind a narcissist prexy too busy sampling seized DEA evidence and banging pages to move the machinery of government forward, one that would primarily used his position to hurt people he doesn’t like is just bog-standard politico.
Totally. THAT is why I wouldn’t vote for him…
I’m not a single issue voter, but I am a “disagree with me on any of the following and I won’t vote for you” voter.
Something for the OMB crowd to keep in mind.
+1 Eugene Debs
but not insurrectionists!
Lyndon LaRouche says hi.
I steadfastly remained ignorant of this person until reading about him in wikipedia just now.
Holy cow what a clusterfuck.
…how?
Honestly though, I knew/worked for a cult leader like that, though he collected misfits and social discards from renfairs and mystics instead of bus stations.
I mean, I was vaguely aware of who he was and what he did but I never watched or read anything about him on purpose. I put him on the same level as other celebrities I have no interest in, like the Kardashians or something.
Tiger King is a very truthful window into certain subcultures and cult group dynamics. Or if you’re more into that, it’s a human freak show a la Jerry Springer.
Human freakery is fine, as long as you don’t try to rub my nose in it. Go be freaky, just leave me out of it. Freaks used to be happy with that, now they want everyone’s approval/afffection.
I don’t believe that Joe wants to rub your nose in it.
What he wants is to maintain his leadership so he needs to maintain his mystique. In the beforetimes you could get away with just telling people small pieces of stories (in my case, the guy had a backstory about how he learned the secrets of bladesmithing in various countries, “discovered” things that his masters weren’t willing to tell him, etc). He’d also give small anecdotes about how he was part of the MY Met Ballet company, worked with or adjacent to the CIA, all sorts of things. Then you let the rumor mills spread them. A common technique is to invent accomplishments (researching the article on practical shooting, I found a guy who claimed to have all sorts of fast-draw records that either didn’t exist or were purely a product of his own organization. Frank Dux did the same thing — see all of his “achievements” listed in Bloodsport)
And if you could get yourself into a newspaper, definitely cut out the article (or at least the part of it that made you look good) and hang it in the shop.
But now, you’ve GOT to get on the internet so your adherents can “independently” verify your stories. The whole “invent a world record” thing can be useful here if one of your disciples has access to youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeW4aG_b7r4 (to be fair: Bruce is not the cult leader The guy who made the sword is).
Reality TV was Joe’s way of proving to his guys that he was the real deal.
The MOST sane person on that show was the lady who got her hand bit off and came back to work the next day.
Dude. Xey are a dude.
Honey Boo Boo would like a word with you.
Oh god I watched that train-wreck a couple times.
I’m with rhy – vaguely aware of some kind of of freakshow that made it to TV and then blew up somehow. And that’s it. I don’t try to keep up with every freakshow that made it to TV and then blew up somehow.
Look, just because every other libertarian is a heretic doesn’t mean we can’t all agree to just raise awareness of MY values.
I can’t tell you how many people here say comparing the effectiveness of expenditures of NY and TX/FL just isn’t fair because NY has winter.
Not for much longer.
“C’mon global warming!”
Looks sadly at 5 inches of fresh snow, curses, pours another cup of coffee and doesn’t wait for Climate Change to fix things…
/Tired of Winter
Me too, brother.
Me three.
Why did I move home again?
What about comparing NY to OH? The current complaint about our state government is that the RADICAL REPBULICANZ want to eliminate the individual income tax.
*looks at Illinois, cries*
Ohio is also killing transfolk but the dump truck full.
*by*
We’re also being killed by trainsfolk by the boxcar full.
The current complaint about our state government is that the RADICAL REPBULICANZ want to eliminate the individual income tax.
DO IT
We didn’t have a winter this year, or last. Fall just melted into spring.
Yeah, Florida has hurricanes. And exactly what percentage of the massive spending in NY is devoted solely to winter?
Well, see, the freeze-thaw cycle tears up the roadz. And then you need to pay for snowplows, which also tear up the roadz. And without taxes, there would be no roadz!
/just saw the idiotic city workers patching potholes this week, just before several days of rain and freezing cold
Yeah… I think the massive difference in education spending more than makes up for “winter”.
Well, you pay off the teachers’ union which then pays off the dem pols.
It’s because all the Floridians just use NY to give their children top notch educations before retiring to Florida.
True. I [linked to it yesterday, but the pass rate at NY schools is skyrocketing!
As a victim of New York schools, I can tell you that none of those graduates know a damn thing.
But they know where their diplomas are!
/just got asked for a background check for a copy of my high school diploma/transcripts
What sort of background check asked for that? I didn’t have to supply those for my state background check. They mostly wanted to know past employers… which for their time frame was entirely the state becuase they didn’t do my background check until 14 years into my career.
I needed to include a scan of my uni diploma for this job. Never had to at previous ones. Still haven’t bothered correctly reframing it.
I can find that one. It’s off-kilter in a dusty frame on the laundry room wall between the bathroom and the back room.
UCS:
The one for the new job. I explained that as I graduated close to 30 years ago, I don’t have any copies of either, but they were more than welcome to reach out to the school to ask for them. I think I would be more concerned about the person who knows where their HS diploma is 30 years later, because it’s right next to the garter from the girl they took to prom, and some game ball. 🙂
I had to supply a copy of my hs diploma for my electrical license.
Listen,
Rich and successful people overwhelmingly go to college.
In order to go to college you need to graduate high school
In order to graduate high school you need to be proficient in math and reading.
Therefore, if we declare them proficient in math and reading, they will graduate high school, go to college, and be rich and successful!
Don’t you even logic?
This guy gets it. Hire him and we can get a government contract printing diplomas.
I need to find mine, but I tested out, not a Ged, and it was 43 years ago. Why would anyone care at my age?
Listen bub. Best practices require that boxes be checked and records kept. Best. Practices.
Some years back, our school board very nearly passed a resolution to require *all* high school students to take at least one AP course. Why? Because one of them had read somewhere that students who take AP courses go on to college at a higher rate than those who don’t.
True story.
NH was first on the list. It must not snow there.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., rebuked George Soros-funded Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for “disgusting abuse of power.”
Instead of indicting former President Donald Trump, Bragg should be held accountable and “put in jail,” Paul tweeted Tuesday.
ZOMG weaponization of the government! ///TheLeft
I hate the misuse of metric prefixes.
$0.1G? They even bother reporting that?
The real issue here is that the SNB invalidated the Credit Suisse AT1 bonds ($17B) which would have given their holders a controlling stake in UBS after assuming the assets. The AT1 bondholders are pissed.
The way those bonds are structured it sure looks like they were designed to give the holders control of all the European banks in a crisis, but the SNB just pissed all over that. One wonders how many of those bonds Soros holds.
$100M is nothing in these deals so if they’re making a big stink about it, it’s not their actual complaint.
What the fuck is the Fed doing bailing out a foreign bank? It’s bad enough they do it with US banks.
Something like 70 to 80% of the money the Fed printed in 2008 went to foreign banks. That’s not happening this time around. The Fed has an agenda here and it actually appears to be in the interest of our banking system.
Worth a read: https://tomluongo.me/2023/03/21/fdic-insurance-credit-suisse-day-fed-killed-europ/
And it’s a damn good thing that money went overseas – or would you really like to be paying $100 for a dozen eggs?
On sale at a $125 Dollar Store.
It was intended to go overseas. The Fed was bailing out foreign banks more than ours.
There’s a special place in Hell for Bernanke and his ilk. I like to think he will be suffocating in a never-ending shower of money being dropped from helicopters.
Well, when you are running the reserve currency, you pretty much have to make sure there are adequate stocks of it overseas. There’s a reason no currency has maintained that status for more than 80 – 100 years. Reserve currencies are leverage, and like all leverage, they are great until you run out of road. And you will run out of road.
According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, shortages of critical drugs are “the worst they’ve been in a decade” due to “[quality control issues, selected plant closures and other manufacturing woes” that have seen oncology drugs “hit particularly hard in recent months,” Axios reported Tuesday.
Our deliberate dive into third world status continues apace.
Where I live there has been a massive shortage of ADHD drugs. It has been kind of interesting to see which kids actually needed them to function and which kids were clearly diagnosed in order to give them a competitive advantage. Shockingly it appears the latter significantly outnumber the former
https://youtu.be/iqItINoE5xc
What about the kids who were diagnosed simply to drug them into submission?
The “competitive advantage” thing is new to me. What’s that all about?
IEP accommodations for children with “disabilities”?
My daughter is on an IEP. She doesn’t take meds but does get extra time on assignments and other accommodations. She’s a solid B student who struggled mightily from 3rd-7th grades. She’s now a sophomore.
I’ll add our (mostly) national approach to education is pretty stupid. Assuming everyone learns the same way is plain idiotic.
There is no other endeavor that we educate like the public schools. If you wanted to learn to swim, or play guitar, or build furniture, you would find a teacher/school that fit your budget and whose qualifications and teaching styles fit the student.
But with K-12 and even college, we use an assembly line.
Mine as well. Slowly pulling back the services so she can be free and competitive.
My son has an IEP with periodic reviews that have slowly removed accommodations. My wife worked special education for over 10 years which is longer than average. The stress of regulations and sadness of the kids who don’t improve takes a toll.
Those drugs are PEDs first of all. Second, an official diagnosis usually comes with a massive host of direct advantages in school like 1.5x or 2x time on assessments among others. Then there are the incentives it creates. If a teacher can get in legal trouble for insufficiently suppirting the special needs kid then they are incredibly likely to just give the kid free A’s to avoid litigation.
Now you’ve got a kid who graduates with a 4.0 and crushed their SATs etc thanks to getting special time rules. Now they get into better colleges where all of those accommodations follow them and they get advantages in college
and none of that is required to be disclosed to future employers…
Oh bullshit
Hmm. Thanks. My circle is basically all homeschool-types and has been for 20+ years and I’ve never heard of any of that.
“Now you’ve got a kid who graduates with a 4.0 and crushed their SATs etc thanks to getting special time rules.”
A kid, maybe. But not all of them.
3rd Grade Teacher: Your daughter is disruptive in class, is stubborn about doing her work, has ADHD, and needs to be medicated!
Pediatrician: Pffft. Idiot teacher. Your daughter has learning disabilities.
My daughter was in the other direction, quiet, shy, introverted. I was happy the day she came home and had to do some homework for talking in class. It was a positive sign.
I was surprised that her kids learned to talk. She and her ex husband never shut up for a second.
US Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Credit Suisse Bailout, Expert Warns
Might as well bail out the entire world.
“Behind the scenes, insurers are using unregulated predictive algorithms, under the guise of scientific rigor, to pinpoint the precise moment when they can plausibly cut off payment for an elderly patient’s treatment,” STAT reported.
“The denials that follow are setting off heated disputes between doctors and insurers, often delaying treatment of seriously ill patients who are neither aware of the algorithms nor able to question their calculations,” it added.
Government healthcare at its finest, I suppose. Remember, “There are no death panels.”
It’s not a Death Panel, there are no humans involved, it’s a termination algorithm.
Disposition Matrix
Libertarian Party Chairwoman Tells ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic to Get Lost After Celeb Announces Bid for President
Someone is awfully catty.
The Libertarian Party does have a striking resemblance to a herd of cats.
Overly Prideful?
Just can’t change their stripes.
Always worth posting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_MaJDK3VNE
Hard to get most of them to toe the lion
Will Swiss give this thread a vertically narrowed gaze?
I’m sure he’s ready to POUNCE
Utah has a new flag. Now it’s a beehive. Ohhhkayy.
Why? Why would anyone care enough about such a pointless symbol to go to enough trouble to change it.
Big Flag lobbying groups?
I dunno.
Apparently Utah changes their flag constantly. Wtf? Is this entertainment for Mormons?
Educational coloring books!
Minnesoda has a new committee to come up with a new flag. The old one had a white racist gun toting farmer on it. Can’t have that.
From wiki:
In recent years the flag has come under growing criticism. Longstanding design concerns about the illegibility of the flag[3] have been joined by concerns that the image depicted by the seal offers a revisionist view of Minnesota’s settlement by Europeans that conceals the violence committed against indigenous peoples.[4]
Well, it is illegible from much of a distance. Which makes it hard to criticize any depiction on it, because you can’t really tell WTF its supposed to be.
Lest one think this is new phenomenon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Lane
The guy who wrote the “horrible” Uncle Remus stories also wrote this. “education of the negro is not the chief solution of the problem that confronts the white people of the South then there is no other conceivable solution and there is nothing ahead but political chaos and demoralization.”
Fuck the Star Trib. Except for James Lileks.
What a fugly flag. Looks like a children’s contest winner. Or a team logo.
De gustibus and all that, but from a design stand point it’s pretty solid. Simple, not too many colors, easily recognizable and reproducible. The beehive is a bit silly but if that was just a generic shape their would be nothing wrong with that flag.
To keep the people at Statele on their toes?
I guess in this moral calculus, Saddam was actually worse than Trump.
Wrong question. The relevant question is whether America is better off for having gotten involved in a massive Middle Eastern clusterfuck.
Still the wrong question – what is the Constitutional authority for the U.S. govt to decide which foreign govts are allowed to exist?
Even better question.
I mean, that’s just the technical question – it doesn’t begin to get at the moral one.
It’s written somewhere on the back in invisible ink that reacts to citrus and heat. It’s known as the FYTW clause.
As I understand it, Cheney went to the CIA and demanded a report on WMDs that met his needs. It was an absolutely intentional lie.
That’s terrible. Good thing our government no longer does such things.
I’ve never heard of that. He did visit the CIA multiple times, and some analysts later said they felt pressured by his visits, though others said they didn’t. Most of the problem was that there was very little new data, so it was mostly guesswork based on what they had been doing (or trying to do) in the past.
I couldn’t find the author. Who wrote this crap?
My great nephew is 100% disabled, thanks to GWB .He would not agree with the author nor would those that didn’t return.
NYT pet conservative Bret Stephens.
And he can fuck right off
*googles*
It’s Bret Stephens, of course. The NYT house conservative, guaranteed to be pro-war at all times.
CONSPIRACY!
Let’s make it simple. Bush lied, Obama lied. Biden lied. Trump probably lied about something too but at least it wasn’t lies intended to expand our never-ending wars.
This idiot sounds as bad as the Rutgers professor who wants amnesty for the COVID tyrants.
I love op-eds without bylines.
Don’t like crime? City life just isn’t for you you pathetic little whiner.
San Francisco deserves what it is getting. I hope it gets a thousand times worse.
I can’t wait until the pop the reparations cherry.
When these lunatic leftist states and cities go bankrupt, there will be a federal bailout. So it won’t just be the reparations cherry getting popped.
I get it, but I’m in a Joker mood today.
“Nobody panics when things go “according to plan”. Even if the plan is horrifying!”
It only proves that 46% of the voters are criminals and want things to continue on as they are.
*grabs popcorn*
Donald Trump will likely be indicted on Wednesday but won’t appear before a judge in New York until next week, DailyMail.com has learned.
‘There will be no arraignment this week,’ a source familiar with the proceedings told DailyMail.com exclusively on Tuesday.
The former president, who is currently in Florida, is expected to be formally charged tomorrow, after which the Manhattan District Attorney’s office will reach out to Trump and his Secret Service detail to make arrangements for his surrender, according to the insider.
Indicted!
As RS noted, our deliberate dive into third world status continues apace.
Daily Quordle 422
8️⃣6️⃣
4️⃣7️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle
Blossom Puzzle, March 22
Letters: A E N V R S T
My score: 268 points
My longest word: 11 letters
💐 💮 🌼 🌷 🌺 🌹 🌻 🌸 🏵 💐 💮
Play Blossom:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/blossom-word-game
Fucked up on TR. Stick a fork in me.
Daily Quordle 422
6️⃣9️⃣
4️⃣5️⃣
Daily Quordle 422
7️⃣8️⃣
4️⃣5️⃣
I blame climate change.
Daily Quordle 422
4️⃣6️⃣
7️⃣8️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle
Oh boy.
262 points but I didn’t realize you could use letters more than once until my 3rd word!
Moderna needs MORE money? Have they been invaded by Russia?
They’re just trying to keep up with Pfizer’s profits.
They need to bail out Moderna to keep the kickbacks and bribes flowing.
Good morning. I’m-a take a little break for a week or so. Things are a little weird & creepy around here.
I’ll be back.
*waves*
We’ll be here. 🙂
Enjoy your break, and hope to still see you dropping in on weekends (you know, those times I’m around).
Wait. Things are always weird and creepy around here….
I thought that was the norm
It is SF Wednesday, after all.
You’ll be missed, KK (and thank you for the DD articles) – enjoy the new doggo.
Quick note before I jump off – thank you all so much for actually reading the article and listening to the songs on my article. I really loved the discussion about “None of the Above” before things got bizarre.
So sorry you feel the need to step away. Cuddle your puppy and come back soon! 🙂
What? I said Ill put my pants on….
*kicks pebble*
*checks last night post* Oh….have a good break KK!
Enjoy your break.
By “here”, do you mean Glibertarians, or meatspace?
Heh.
TRUMP INDICTMENT:
FAT ALVIN BRAGG – SOFT ON CRIME, TOUGH ON TWINKIES!
“Clown world” has become my mantra that keeps running through my mind while watching the news.
Fat Abbot?
Mendacious cunte.
Well, which is it sonny – helping ALL Americans participate (and no doubt some voting for the other side)? Or building a governing coalition? Don’t bother answering, we already know.
I know I said it last time but this time I mean it. I will never vote again so long as no-questions-asked mail in votes still exists.
#metoo. The only thing my vote does is generate the creation of an offsetting ballot in Maricopa County.
Was this the work of Auric Nickelfinger? JPMorgan Chase thought it had $1.3 million worth of nickel stored in a warehouse. A closer examination revealed bags of stones.
SF’d the Hell out that link.
Here
If I had a nickel for every time…
You expect me to talk, Nickelfinger?!
No, Mister Brew, I expect you to Dine.
It better be someplace cheap. I only have $0.10.
Nickelous Nickelfinger
Nickel, please . . . .
That just reminded me. On St. Patrick’s Day, the group I was with were at Great Lakes Brewing at their downstairs bar. They had (for the holiday) the Leprechaun movies on the TV with closed captioning on (from Sci-Fi channel IIRC), the second one (In the Hood) was playing. They decided to bowdlerize a certain word that is now a cancelling word, so you had dialog such as:
“Did you just call me a ninja?”
“Ninja please.”
“What’s up my ninjas?”
I have a t-shirt that says “Strictly For My Ninjas”
If you’re not familiar with ‘Pac, then I cant help you
OFFS!!!
Be chill my nagger.
There is all kinds of censoring going on these days. Mostly what Ebert called “crap gap”.
Like the word “bitch” is verboten on some channels now.
Sometimes I catch gaps where there’s obvious reason for it and wonder, “WTF did they just censor?”
…”no” obvious reason…
At least they weren’t wooden.
Now JP wants its nickelback.
Final Notice: I will be putting together the ‘What Are We Reading’ post this evenings – If you’d like to participate send your book reviews/reports to HeyBuddyStopDoingThat@protonmail.com some time before 8pm.
I dropped a load in your inbox. BOOM!
R.J. from the upper deck
+1 Brewster McCloud
Fox News host Tucker Carlson calls out Democrats for going after former President Trump and January 6 protesters on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
Looks like 1,000 more persecutions coming for the J6 Fedsurrection.
They’re trying to incite a reason to crack down harder. Things are unraveling for the Biden administration.
Ding, ding. They are desperately hoping for another “riot” when he is arrested. And because Trump is a fool, he is helping them by calling for protests.
Why anyone would protest for Trump after his shameful treatment of his loyalists now rotting in jail, I have no clue.
No one ever went broke underestimating… ?
All going to a DC kangaroo court.
He sure ran out of J6 footage fast.
Doesn’t even mention it anymore, does he? Wonder what kind of threat produces that effect.
No kidding. McConnell bitched about it after the first day, then no more footage shown. After a few days, not even mentioned as far as I know.
One more stone in the bucket. McCarthy’s big play fizzled. Should have just posted it all online for autists and defense attorneys to work through. Hell, Elon probably would have helped put together some kind of search/analysis function for it.
Daily Ray of Sunshine
Thanks Jimbo.
Don’t be bringing me any cats, however.
Speaking of cults and their leaders… I stumbled across a PBS News Hour asslicker about Foochy last might. Holy shit, what a delusional sanctimonious prig. He is our Savior, and it grieves him deeply to see members of his flock turn away from him just as they need him most. Why do you deny Him, America? Truly, He is a martyr.
Seeing him dangling upside down from a lamppost cannot happen soon enough.
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if all the politicians and talking heads grandstanding about getting their vaccination(s) and showing it on TV weren’t actually getting saline.
Or for the old fucks, B-12
Maybe he and the followers he has left will vaccinate themselves into the next world.
It’s hard for me to feel for Sysco. They certainly could have self financed this. OTH…
The Litigation Finance Snare
OTH, when you’ve got a business model (litigation finance) that makes regular ambulance-chasers look wholesome…
Not specific to this firm, I’m actually OK with with litigation finance in principle.
It can allow some (usually low income) people who were genuinely wronged get some relief that may not have been able to do so otherwise.
First I’ve really heard of litigation finance & I’m also OK with it in principle. Maybe I’m just cynical but I assume in practice it leads to more shitty lawsuits, like abusive ADA lawsuits.
ADA lawsuits… I hope GWB is currently in a non ADA complaint level of hell.
Or the producers being sued. Would think there’s a tort in there for a non party to the lawsuit controlling and interfering with case outcome.
What a festering stew of conflict of interests that creates. I’m not a fan, at all, of litigation finance schemes. Even when the financier nominally doesn’t have any settlement authority, they are still the source of the law firm’s money and thus become a shadow client with interests that can and will differ from the “real” client.
Yup.
Much like how our health insurance “system” works – warping the incentives of the direct participants.
I think disallowing Joe Exotic was a good move. We stand zero chance of winning the presidency with a guy like that on the ticket. With a guy like Dave Smith or any of a host of other good Libertarians we could double those chances easy.
+0 [math checks out]
Don’t forget to carry the zero.
*Jethro Bodine math*
A math classic.
Look, the Mises Caucus is trying to turn the Libertarian party into something that can have an actual impact. No. Dave Smith won’t be President. He says that himself. But we need people that can go out there and challenge the establishment and get Libertarian Ideas into the public consciousness. And the media won’t be giving any free passes to Team L. So Team D runs a senile old man from his basement and gets at tongue bath. Team L gets nonstop coverage of Aleppo while Biden gets a pass for misremembering how Beau died. See how it works?
I applaud the effort to shut this bs down quick. We have a small chance to make some noise in the wake of the Lockdowns and now Bank Bailouts and we don’t need idiots like Exotic fucking up the messaging.
I think there’s a general ennui that they’ve purposely cultivated for decades- gov’t dependence, this is a “temporary tax”, “2 weeks to flatten the curve” that a lot of people now see for the bullshit it has been and is. But like everyone lined-up for the clot shot its a matter of “what else do we do?”
Yeah, thing is, you’ve got more chance reforming either of the major parties than you do making a third party relevant. It isn’t just the parties, it’s the populace.
Fire them all.
Thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the U.S., walked off the job Tuesday over failed contract negotiations, joining teachers and other education staff across the city on a three-day strike.
Driving the news: The Service Employees International Union, Local 99 (SEIU Local 99), which represents 30,000 school workers across the district that serves over 600,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade at more than 1,000 schools, says its members are striking to protest “unfair practices.”
The union United Teachers Los Angeles asked its 35,000 members to go on strike in solidarity.
“unfair practices”
Did the district finally drop COVID theater?
They never strike in the summer time.
This looks like a really good source.
https://infonomena.substack.com/
“‘Not in our hood, you rat!’ ‘Snitch’ rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine is beaten to a pulp in men’s locker room of LA Fitness gym – five years after testifying against gang members and Cardi B”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11888669/Tekashi-6ix9ine-rushed-hospital-ambulance-getting-beaten-pulp-LA-Fitness-sauna.html
Play stupid games.
That’s McDonalds advertising partner Cardi B.
Sucks for him but he’s lucky he ain’t dead.
Sometimes dead is better.
Does that affect one’s street cred? Will albums sell less?
Snitches get stitches.
The last Dodge gas muscle car. All electric after this supposedly.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/other/dodge-challenger-srt-demon-170-is-brands-last-v8-muscle-car-and-most-powerful-ever/ar-AA18S1l0
People in the South seem to love these cars. Black guys especially seem to be into muscle cars around here. Newish tricked out Camaros, Mustangs, and Challengers are really popular. Must be racism.
Yeah, and the more ridiculously loud the fucking exhaust is the better. I like muscle cars myself but that shit is aggravating.
Yeah, some days I ponder whether Britain and their “ASBO’s” got something right. Because that shit is out of control.
Eh American cars who cares. European ones are better anyways
How would you fit an American into a Fiat?
Cut the roof off.
One of my favorite moments in Zurich was watching out the window of the hotel cafe as a young couple took about 17 minutes to put a car seat in the rear seat of their VW Golf (or similar car I can’t quite remember).
I get it, the entire European infrastructure is on a smaller scale. We have so much f-ing room in the States we don’t know what to do with it.
We know what to do. Build big, comfortable cars.
Giant refrigerators and 18 wheelers FTW!
Compensation???
Wait, which stereotypes are being invoked here?
Demand CA include them in reparations?
Dodge may be the first to fall hard. Stellantis went all in on electrification. Ford and GM at least had the commons sense to realize you best keep some gas cars around. I expect the Dodge electro-muscle will fail faster than a lead balloon. Their economics is not good enough to pivot back. Makes me sad, I love Dodge in all it’s brashness. It was skin-suited by morons.
Odds of this being HWY50 in CA?
Just another day on HWY50
1. A car of this age actually being alive in the rust belt?
2. It’s raining – what the heck is that?
3. Tires only need to be replaced when they get down to the cords in CA, right?
4. Since it never rains that mean I always go the same speed, right?
Looks like the cammer missed getting touched without changing speed and skating queen might have escaped with just minor damage. Buy lotto tickets all around.
You’re not kidding – all I kept thinking was “speed up!”. Lucky all around.
I don’t think the camera driver knew what was happening until after it happened.
I suspect you’re correct.
Lat Lon puts it outside Sacramento.
Caprice or Delta 98? May have landed with little or no impact.
I think you can read “Caprice Classic” on the rear end when it swerves around.
Doesn’t California have front plates? I don’t see any front plates on the cars in the video.
Yes, but CA car culture means low compliance is the norm.
When I lived there, half the cars in the neighborhood had out-of-state plates for the obvious reasons.
Heh.
Or folks driving in from out-of-state. Which reminds me, when I was roadtripping across the country for FreedomFest 2022, when I drove from NV into AZ, I saw an SUV with MA plates. My first thoughts were, “Oh shit, there goes the neighborhood.”
It won’t surprise that half of the comments about this mutually beneficial completely voluntary trade are that it is exploitation
https://twitter.com/wwwojtekk/status/1638355332777799680
What we need is more indecipherable convoluted law governing political campaigns and the financing thereof.
“‘You cannot stop me’: Democrat has used filibuster to BLOCK virtually all political business in Nebraska for weeks over Republican bill to ban gender surgery for underage kids – as she likens it to GENOCIDE and vows to keep going”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11888787/Democrat-used-filibuster-BLOCK-virtually-political-business-Nebraska-trans-bill.html
“‘INHUMANE science experiments’: Missouri’s top lawyer slams emergency curbs on trans operations for kids – as ‘skyrocketing’ numbers seek gender swaps”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11885751/Missouris-lawyer-slaps-emergency-curbs-INHUMANE-science-experiments-trans-clinics.html
The duality of man.
I have an idea: the minimum age for trans surgery should be “age of consent plus 3 years”
No. It should be a felony to mutilite people like that, plus a loss of any medical credentialling.
Don’t care if adults want to do it as long as I don’t have to foot the bill, professional ethics considerations notwithstanding. Kids transitioning is a hard no for me though no matter what the circumstances.
All well and good but if you work those peoples’ preferences into it that works out to around 6.
I realized that a bit late
TLDR: “I’m nucking futs and I’m going to demonstrate it to you.”
Imagine your calling in life being sliced up peoples tenders
What kind of filibuster rule do they have if the person filibustering can leave the chamber, go to committee hearings, etc. and the filibuster is still blocking the bill?
She’s no Jimmy Stewart!
Wanting to mutilate children is a strange hill to die on.
it is not the final goal but it is an important step. If you can get people to agree sex is not really biological and chan be switched you go far.
It’s what her constituents want her to do.
We should all be so lucky.
They claim to believe that the hormones and the chop-chop are necessary to “prevent suicide” when the reality is nothing of the sort. The vast majority of the current wave of faddish “transgenders” have additional mental issues that are driving any suicidal ideation.
In other words, they are ignorant of the issues they are voting on. (Surprise!)
“Police have refused to move a homeless man living in a tent outside a woman’s home in Portland, Oregon, despite him repeatedly threatening to torch her house, she claims.
Vivica Elliot approached the man to voice concerns about how close his tent was to her home – at which point he supposedly yelled at her: ‘I’m gonna burn your house down’ four times.
The woman told KPTV police said that, despite the alleged threat, police could not arrest him or force him to move his tent – provided by an Antifa group – because no crime had been committed.
According to Elliot, the tent had been supplied by People’s Housing Project LLC, an organization that gives tents to unhoused individuals which is reportedly run by several ‘self proclaimed communists.’
In a statement, People’s Housing Project representatives said they are ‘aware that not everyone supports efforts to provide services to houseless folks.’
An investigation by one outlet revealed that the organization has been accused of being a ‘fake charity scam’ and that at least one member of the group was arrested during an Antifa protest in October 2020…..
‘The greatest fear of the right wing: a Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy against whiteness and capitalism,’ Kim wrote in an October 2021 Instagram post.
Kim also used the hashtags ‘culturalmarxism’ and ‘revolution.'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11888581/Oregon-woman-says-homeless-man-threatened-burn-home-asked-tent.html
Not to worry. There are real nonprofits, government agencies, and quangos all handing out tents and other services to enable the bums.
Antifa is just an idea.
“no crime had been committed.”
Uh, terroristic threat is not a crime?
My first thought too, but hey Oregon…
They know exactly what they’re doing.
There are many ways to handle it. None of them pleasant, but quite a few are effective.
Hwy 50 clp:
Does your Tesla stab the throttle when it sees that coming?
STONE ROSES from the dead thread: I worked with a guy who had a good friend who was on vacation in London. He was walking through the Covent Garden area early one morning and bumped into Ian Brown on the street and they had a brief convo. Brown told him he was on his way to the press conference to announce the Roses getting back together, so my friend’s friend knew they were going to reunite before a lot of the world.
Damn I missed that conversation. I still listen to them often. One of my favorites, and that guitarist is seriously underrated.
NORMAL
Customer: how much?
Server: $175
Customer: here’s $175
Server: thanks
WEIRD COUNTRY
Customer: how much?
Server: $175
Customer: here’s $175
Server: uh you forgot to calculate an extra tip since I don’t get a living wage
Customer: ok here’s another…$15?
Server: fuck you
https://twitter.com/Halalcoholism/status/1638488774194925573
If I ever make it to the US I am curios how the service is compared to Europe. Here it is not always that good, but it can be. But I am always surprised about this sort of outrage that different countries have different systems.
LOL a commenter thought they scored points when the smugly noted that the average server’s wage in Australia (a “normal” country) is almost $29/hour. Which works out to about $19.43 in American dollars. They are blissfully ignorant that servers in decent restaurants in America make a lot more than that with tipping.
Bartending/Serving in Vegas can bring in 6-figures on a minimum wage.
Also, fuck Australia.
Someone had to say it.
Why should I care that servers in some American restaurants make a lot of money? I’m not a waiter. I don’t value waiters’ labor that much. I prefer to pay less for service not more.
As in Europe, the quality of service will vary wildly between different establishments.
like so?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTpxJBKRSEQ
She forgot to say “Hon” after every sentence
Not really true. On the whole, service in the US is much better. Yes, there are good restaurants and bad etc. But the average level of service is much better in the USA.
I don’t give the tiniest sliver of a fuck whether you make a living wage or not. That’s not what tipping is for.
Generally service is better in the US.
The last Dodge gas muscle car. All electric after this supposedly.
No more coast to coast runs for time.
I don’t understand corporations continual efforts to not serve their customers wants and needs.
/looks at electric Harleys
I want to assume someone will fill the vacuum, but with government regulations who knows if that will be possible.
Sure, if you ask if folks in the public if they lose faith in science if journals venture into politics, many will say yes. But they don’t actually want science, they want scientific information they can use as they see fit.
This gives people the permission to say things like “climate change may be real, but I don’t think we should have government regulation to deal with it,” which is unacceptable. We can’t concede that by letting people pick and choose.
https://twitter.com/hholdenthorp/status/1638203878435962880
… which is unacceptable. We can’t concede that by letting people pick and choose.
GFY
Moderna’s defense in the lawsuit isn’t that the company didn’t steal the critical technology it’s accused of stealing. Instead, the company claims that, thanks to an obscure hundred-year-old statute, liability in the case actually belongs to the U.S. government because it funded the development and purchase of the end product in question.
We didn’t steal it but we did steal it, it’s just the taxpayer is on the hook not us. Did I understand that correctly?
According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, shortages of critical drugs are “the worst they’ve been in a decade” due to “[quality control issues, selected plant closures and other manufacturing woes” that have seen oncology drugs “hit particularly hard in recent months,” Axios reported Tuesday.
Who could have foreseen this?
When are they going to start airlifting Ritalin or Adderall in for the struggling kids the same way they did baby formula?
Just put it in the drinking water.
Also, just feed the kid meth. They’ll be alert and take apart your microwave looking for government listening devices.
Meth Actually Not That Bad For You, Report Doctors Dismantling Stereo
There were no good guys in the Vietnam War.
But I am glad that Vietnam is a growing nation that’s discarded communism in favor of the free market, while also being one of the most pro-U.S. countries on earth!
Everyone’s happy (except tankies who are never happy)!
https://twitter.com/OliverJia1014/status/1638404910306971649
https://vietnamembassy-usa.org/vietnam/politics
Yeah, sure is discarded.
Economically a good part of it is discarded
Viet Nam is theoretically communist.
Why does this guy spell his name in katakana?
Sure there were good guys, they just weren’t in charge of anything and were getting slaughtered.
This is not kosher…
Two influential members of Israel’s Knesset have introduced a bill to outlaw teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Israel and sentence violators to prison.
…but it is ironic.
It’s not that big of a deal as Phar as I can See.
Didn’t even have to do much more than alter a few words from some 1930s German law.
It would be a good way to cut them off the US’s teat.
Im shopping for a new VPN. Currently I use NORD, which is fine. But is there a better/as-good-as/cheaper version?
Soliciting comments.
I use Proton, but that was because I was already paying for email through their service.
I can only provide a single, limited data-point: I use Proton, which is bundled in with the fancy-pants Visionary plan I got (which they no longer offer). I have no complaints.
Thanks to both of you. Noted.
As an aside- would you/do you use Proton for any professional business correspondence? I just wonder if the name could be off-putting.
/UCS, I know you dont since you’re a civil servant
I own my own domain name and all the mail comes from that name, despite the processing being handled by proton, so it is possible to use another name if you’re worried about the appearance.
^Same here. Visionary plan with VPN, email, and supposedly encrypted online storage through Proton. I have my own domain though for email that Proton uses.
I like having my own email domain because I own it and am only paying for the service. There’s no barrier to switching services for that email. And since I’m paying for the service, I’m not (hopefully) the product.
Also same.
I haven’t tried the Proton VPN thingie cuz honestly I don’t know what’s in it for me beyond vague promises, or what are the trade-offs.
Yes, this – in theory*, any mail will be via a domain I own that Proton handles the mail for.
If you don’t have a domain, they’re cheap & looks like Proton’s ‘Mail Plus’ for $48/yr. lets you use a custom domain, plus bundles in the VPN service (or jump to Unlimited for $120/yr for more goodies).
* In practice, getting my 82 year old mother from Google-hosted to Proton-hosted mail is proving a bit challenging.
Nord seems to be getting finickier about connecting for some reason. Used to be pretty damn good but now it sucks.
I’ve been pretty happy with Windscribe. I’m following their new Control-DNS service with some interest.
How neat. Researchers claim to have found, at long last, an “einstein” tile – a shape that tiles the plane in a pattern that never repeats. First two authors appear to have no academic affiliations.
https://twitter.com/nattyover/status/1638177366181826560
“Long COVID Comes Into the Light
We’re finally starting to see the truth about the vexing condition. It’s not what we thought.
Now, three years later, the research is catching up to the anecdotal reports and the early evidence, and a clearer picture of long COVID has emerged. It turns out that, like COVID-19 itself, a lot of our early guesses about it turned out to be considerably wide of the mark. This time, fortunately, the surprises are mostly on the positive side. Long COVID is neither as common nor as severe as initially feared. As the U.S. government moves to end the country’s state of emergency, it’s another reassuring sign that, as President Biden put it during his State of the Union address, “COVID no longer controls our lives.””
https://slate.com/technology/2023/03/long-covid-symptoms-studies-research-variant.html
“Long COVID was predicted to bring “an ocean of patients with titanic needs.” That’s not what’s happened.”
https://twitter.com/Slate/status/1637589956334964737
COVID no longer controls our lives.
It never controlled mine.
Do you live on a homestead in the Alaskan Wilderness? Because it sure as hell impacted everyone else.
The Kovid Karens and virus theater enforcers had their impact. But not the virus itself.
“COVID no longer controls our lives.”
But you and your asshole buddies still do.
Guess it is back to “lower back” injuries for the malingerers and insurance fraudsters.
Long Covid was nice while it lasted. Nice list of “symptoms” that were entirely subjective and impossible to disprove.
“lower back” injuries for the malingerers and insurance fraudsters
I see a new career, Thanks, Jimbo
New ad campaign
Two Virginia inmates who broke out of their jail cell with a toothbrush tasted sweet freedom for a day at an IHOP miles away before they were caught.
According to the Newport News Sheriff’s Office, two inmates were missing during a headcount on Thursday. The pair, John M. Garza and Arley V. Nemo, had used “primitive tools,” including a toothbrush and untied rebar, to dig a hole out of their cell wall, and scaled a wall to make a daring escape, the department said.
——-
The two then made it to an IHOP seven miles away in the neighboring town of Hampton, Virginia, opting for the pancake house instead of a Waffle House a few blocks away.
NNSO did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. In a press release, NNSO said that private citizens notified law enforcement when they saw the men at the IHOP.
“Moreover, I’m thankful for the citizens who observed Garza and Nemo at the IHOP and notified law enforcement. It reinforces what we always say, ‘see something, say something,'” Sheriff Gabe Morgan said in the release.
Ihop should send them pancakes once a week.
Perfectly NYC. Supply vs Demand.
As Passover nears, New York’s AG warns Jewish customers about car wash price gouging
It’s just like finding fuel before and after severe weather, right?
what is the point of washing cars they only get dirty again
Same with cleaning all the leaven in the house and kitchen.
To get the salt off to prevent rust?
salt is bad for the environment and should not be used
salt is natural and should be used.
You cannot live without salt.
sure you can. Humanity lived for a long time without putting salt on roads
Oddly, the human body is around 0.4% weight in salt. Which puts us in line to approximate seawater levels.
That was the premise of a science film way, way back when I was in jr high.
Blood is roughly seawater from a million years ago.
James’ office said it has received reports of car wash businesses (largely in predominantly Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City) raising prices by as much as 50% for Jewish customers looking for cleaning services close to Passover.
What?
Cleaning is in high demand during Passover.
The argument is that this is religious discrimination instead of supply versus demand.
This has a high probability of being total BS. At most it might have been one shop who had to raise prices for an unrelated reason.
Do they only accept gold as payment?
God she is such a fucking idiot.
Having things stolen from your car as a high frequency is frustrating but unless you were present when it occurred and were threatened it’s not traumatic. No more than usual property theft is that occurs everywhere.
Why SF discourse takes extremely absurd positions is beyond me.
https://twitter.com/IDoTheThinking/status/1638213616011993091
not traumatic but infuriating stressful and probably with long term effects on your wellbeing and implicitly health
CNN Visits San Francisco
Dont fuck with another man’s vehicle.
Huh, a lefty politician denying my lived experiences and invalidating my feelings.
I thought that was my job.
That bum probably thinks defending yourself against criminals is interrupting the natural flow of the city.
Relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjaZUmGLUG8
https://rumble.com/v2dh6g3-when-someone-dislikes-your-youtube-video.html
I would dislike but I don’t have an account.
“Miss Mondo Emilia-Romagna” by Manuel Zaccaria – Sassuolo (Modena) – 05.02.2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRfEuhpa5f4
How monetary policy affects bank lending and financial stability: A ‘credit creation theory of banking’ explanation
Peter Bofinger Lisa Geißendörfer Thomas Haas Fabian Mayer /
20 Mar 2023
Recent research has shown that the stance of monetary policy can influence financial stability. This column provides an explanation for the effects of monetary policy on credit growth based on a ‘credit creation theory of banking’. In this framework, ‘funds’ are liquid bank deposits created by the banking system independently of private saving(s). The central bank policy rate has a direct effect on credit supply by influencing the refinancing costs of banks. This provides a clear mechanism through which central banks can influence bank lending and financial stability.
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/how-monetary-policy-affects-bank-lending-and-financial-stability-credit-creation
Demandable claims on bank liquidity complicate the unwinding of central bank balance sheets
Viral Acharya Rahul Chauhan Raghuram Rajan Sascha Steffen /
21 Mar 2023
The last round of quantitative tightening caused two episodes of significant liquidity stress in US financial markets. This column asks whether the prior expansion and then shrinkage of the Fed’s balance sheet had left the private financial sector more vulnerable to such disruptions. The authors find evidence of ‘liquidity dependency’, whereby the banking system acquires more on- and off-balance-sheet demandable claims during quantitative easing that are not simply reversed with tightening, necessitating even greater central bank balance sheet support in the future. The findings have implications for monetary policy as well as financial stability.
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/demandable-claims-bank-liquidity-complicate-unwinding-central-bank-balance-sheets
AI is getting very good
Five Authors We Wish Had Written More
https://www.tor.com/2023/03/20/five-authors-we-wish-had-written-more/
Only heard of / read A Canticle For Liebowitz from all that
But from that I got to this
https://www.tor.com/2022/03/21/crisis-collapse-and-space-pirates-revisiting-the-rosinante-trilogy/
Crisis, Collapse, and Space Pirates! Revisiting The Rosinante Trilogy
” The initial setup is one quite familiar to readers of that time: by the 2030s, O’Neill-style space colonies have been established across the inner Solar System. Our hero protagonist, space contractor Charles Cantrell, has just completed work on the pair of Munditos—habitats—orbiting the asteroid Rosinante when grim reality intrudes.
The first grim reality is economic: investment in Munditos has been more exuberant than prudent. Ozone layer concerns limit Earth to space launches. Investors are justly concerned that a downturn in space industries could threaten their investment. When maverick Texan governor Panoblanco dispatches a shipload of vexing student protestors to Rosinante, leading Japanese investors to send a shipload of Korean-Japanese women on the pretext that the Korean women might like to marry the unruly Texans, the dubious staffing choice undermines confidence in the project. Following the investment implosion that ensues, Cantrell is left with partial ownership of the Munditos in lieu of fees owed. The local union grudgingly accepts a partial ownership in lieu of salary unpaid.”
this amused me
“A Canticle For Liebowitz” is a good book.
Luckily trucks don’t do those things.
Heavy-duty trucks account for nearly a third of harmful air pollutants.
We need bold action.
CA will once again lead the way –phasing out the use of diesel-powered trucks.
Trucks shouldn’t give our kids asthma.
Make wildfires worse.
Or melt glaciers.
🙄
Do you really need trucks? You can get food and stuff for a nearby supermarket. We just need to solve food deserts and trucks will not be needed.
No, but I want trucks, and my wants are more important than the government’s needs.
In other news, my Taco has been in the shop for six months now. I’m developing a twitch.
What are you driving?
A euphemism?
A hooker ?
I don’t want to talk about it. Think the most boring rental-fleet POS that’s not a hybrid, and you can probably guess.
What are you having done to it? Lowered, bagged, custom body work, candy apple red paint?
Someone rear-ended me. I’m waiting for all the repairs to be finished.
If ULSD burning, particulate filter having, NOx controlled (by urea injection) trucks are causing 33% of air pollution, wheres the other 2/3 Gavin?
Oh yeah- gas stoves and charcoal grills.
Is the Orange Menace still free? When oh when are they going to clap him in irons for the good of the nation?
I was unaware of this. Normally I’d say it has to be better than what we have, but I read this:
The government announced plans Wednesday to overhaul the troubled U.S. organ transplant system, including breaking up the monopoly power of the nonprofit organization that has run it for the past 37 years.
There wasn’t window for him to fall from?
Russian musician famous for anti-war protest songs dies after falling through icy river
Researchers say newly posted analysis supports natural origin for Covid-19 pandemic
Do you really need trucks?
Not at all. We can use teams of oxen to get those shipping containers from the Port of Long Beach to their ultimate destinations.
South Korea ditches 69-hour workweek plan after youth revolt
Nice…
Is it bizarre that I look forward to SF’s midday Wednesday brilliance to make sense of the world?
Let saner heads prevail
The Federal Reserve system was stung in late 2021 when it declared signs of emerging inflation to be “transitory” and delayed taking strong action to tamp down price increases.
The central bank has been running from its critics ever since. Under its chairman, Jerome H. Powell, it has instituted the most aggressive anti-inflation interest rate increases in more than 40 years as if to make up for its initially laggard response to what proved to be a nearly yearlong run-up in prices.
In the process, however, the Fed has inflicted damage on bank balance sheets that could have more-lasting negative effects on economic growth than would be felt from even a sustained period of high inflation.
——-
Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, who was in place during the 2008 banking crisis, added her voice to the chorus in an interview Sunday with CNN. “The Fed needs to hit pause and assess the full impact of its actions so far before raising short rates further,” she said. “If they paused, it would have a settling effect on the markets.”
Economists’ concerns about the scale and speed of the Fed’s rate increases have been building for months. Former Fed economist Claudia Sahm has long warned that “the Fed’s large and rapid rate hikes during the past year were going to break something in financial markets,” as she wrote on her blog last week. “The meltdown at SVB and the possible contagion effects fit the bill.”
There’s reason to believe that the battle against inflation has largely been won, though at some economic cost. Two important drivers of price increases in 2022 — a spike in oil prices after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and a strain on global industrial supply chains as pandemic shutdowns ended and demand rebounded — are no longer in place.
Can’t we just declare victory and call it a day?
Sure! Let’s pass out some medals too.
The Fed’s performance over the last year has been a series of interacting, self-compounding errors. At first, the central bank and Chairman Powell underestimated the duration and intensity of inflation (and misunderstood its causes). Then they overreacted by driving rates higher and faster than the economy could sustain, without ever pausing to examine how their actions were working.
Meanwhile, they took their eyes off the bank regulatory ball. It’s true that banks of SVB’s size were granted exemptions in 2018 from many post-recession regulations, including the mandate to undergo “stress tests” that might have shown how the run-up in interest rates would affect its balance sheet. But nothing prevented the Fed from proactively making its own judgments about SVB’s health. It did not.
“The ‘transitory’ fiasco was a fiasco for everybody,” Shepherdson says. “The Fed’s reputation institutionally and Powell’s reputation personally took a real pounding from both sides of the aisle, from the media and from markets, and they cannot be wrong again…. It would be a mistake to raise rates this week, and the cost of not raising this week is very low.”
Yes. Mistakes were made by the Fed in the past year. They were doing splendidly up ’til then. We just need to find a way to get interest rates back to zero.
Well, the collision center says my truck is in the body shop already. I might get it back as early as the end of next week.
Health, Labor, Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee
These fucking tortured acronyms, man. They’re painful.
For the record, the fake name of that committee should be HLEP, not HELP.